5 Facebook Don’ts For Your Start-up
By: Franck Tchouambou
Establishing a social media presence is becoming a common objective for both new and old businesses. It is important that you are present on all the major platforms. I’m a bit lazy, so we’ll take baby steps and talk about Facebook first. I’ve started, managed, and built several Facebook pages (Currently at 5+ million likes on 15 pages) and through my many trial & errors, I’ve established a good understanding of what works and what doesn’t. So here’s a list of 5 things you shouldn’t do on your company page (we’ll do the do’s later).
1. Don’t buy likes!
Don’t purchase likes for your page, ever! This actually does more harm than good. First off, when you make a post on Facebook only a certain percentage of your audience will actually see that post.According to a Mashable post, “ The average post from a brand page only reaches 16% of fans.” Let’s say you have 1,000 organic likes on Facebook and someone decides that it’s a good idea to buy 9,000 likes in order to make your page look good. Normally your posts would reach 160 people who are actually interested in your brand, but now you’re reaching 1,600 people with a majority of them being fake accounts. You are devaluing your brand when you waste your resources on the wrong audience. Secondly, people love growing with a brand. Your initial followers love the fact that they were around when you first started and this helps bring brand loyalty. They won’t get this feeling if you give them the same value as a fake account.
2. Don’t ignore wall-posts!
Great customer service should apply to every aspect of your business, not just your service number. Don’t ignore people who are posting their concerns on your page. You should reply to every wall-post even if it’s not constructive. Delete the post if you must, but to simply ignore users is not a good way to do business. These posts can come from potential users or those who are on the verge of leaving! By helping certain users publicly, you’ll avoid a lot of repeating questions because some people will read your response to questions that are similar to theirs.
3. Don’t post irrelevant contests.
Every now and then I see Facebook contests on my newsfeed that have absolutely nothing to do with the brand. Likes are great but you could be doing more. Stop giving away money and things that are not related to your brand. If you want to give away an iPhone or iPad, make sure the back-cover has an imprint of your brand on it. Want to giveaway a laptop? Awesome! Make sure the top has your logo and website on it. “There’s no such thing as a free lunch,” so stop giving away free pizza! Every single thing you give away should be branded one way or another. When they’re wearing or using your products in public, guess who they’re going to talk about every time someone asks “What does that logo stand for?” Woot! Free marketing! Well…not really.
4. Don’t be a like-whore.
Please don’t be that page. If you’re looking to appeal to the 18+ age group, then you definitely don’t want to be a like-whore. These posts that look to exploit people for likes like the “Like to kill cancer,” will only attract those who are naive enough to think that a Facebook like will kill cancer cells. Don’t get me wrong, cancer is awful but I would prefer if you asked me to donate to a cause or buy a product that would benefit cancer research. If people feel as if your page insults their intelligence, then there’s a good chance they will think you’re stupid and unlike your page.
5. Don’t be politically & Religiously biased.
If you’re gaining a decent amount of traction, there’s a good chance that your audience is diverse in their personal worldviews. If you consistently side with one political party or religion, then you are isolating those who don’t agree with you. You may have good intentions, but you could end up insulting customers and even members of your own staff. It’s ok to side with a specific issue, but a specific party or religion is too broad and it will do more harm than good. If you do decide that your company should stand behind certain issues, it’s VERY important that you have someone who does their research and actually knows what their talking about.
